Prickled
by Zephyrius29
Summary: It was a principle for Mikan to not expect love, just getting any attention was more than enough for someone like her even if she had to force it. Knowing to not expect anything should've kept her in line, but the uncontrollable flower petals stemming from her mouth said otherwise.


Before arriving at Hope's Peak, attention was a scarcity. Whenever receiving any, usually it'd be some form of scarring. Needless to say this prepared Mikan for the harshness of the world in the sense of not expecting love. It was nice enough to even have her existence acknowledged as opposed to the alternative, so it'd have been for the best to not set up trash like herself up for disappointment.

That was still only before Hope's Peak which crashed that philosophy with a sledgehammer. Granted there was still Hiyoko around to keep things relatively "normal", but being accepted over the months changed her entire perspective. For once she could feel happy and dare she even say safe.

However in her life she's accustomed to good things not lasting, so needless to say she wasn't shocked when one morning while getting ready in the bathroom petals unexpectedly flew out of her throat. Because of course. Of course of all the diseases she had to get, it was one for love, and one she knew all too well about.

Hanahaki was a rare disease that she barely heard of before coming to Hope's Peak. There's just far too much in the medical world from rare cases to common diseases, illnesses, dealing with regular surgery etc. for even an Ultimate to know, especially at her young age without going through a long med school course. However she learned enough from having to deal with a classmate who had it, them being Kazuichi who's unrequited love was obvious to spot.

From the painstaking hours of research spent there, Hanahaki was supposedly a rare genetic disorder which caused certain people to create flowers and violently cough them up, all caused by specific hormone imbalances created by the feeling of unrequited romantic love. It could be surgically removed if need be which is what she did, but the processes typically removed the romantic feelings for that person. Either that, or...be reciprocated which was absolutely out of the question. 'Don't even worry yourself with that, you'll just be disappointed' she told herself. 'Focus on the realistic outcome.'

In extreme cases, it'd be deadly from causes such as internal bleeding, but in Kazuichi's case it luckily wasn't that bad and given how bad he acted with his love, he conceded without making it a big fuss. With it being so rare it'd have been a nightmare to deal with him, but the potential on her was even worse as she can't simply perform that type of surgery on herself She may be an Ultimate but she's still human! It'd take inhumane experiments on her to give her more talent or some prayer to a god to give her that much skill. Maybe she should've taken up Angie's offer for the latter after all...

Still, she couldn't wait forever with classes coming and Chisa had a mandatory attendance policy, so for the day she decided to just live through with it. Luckily there weren't any issues in class, but during her free time when she got to spend time with her friends there were close calls, the worst being when she tripped in front of Nagito after colliding with him and almost choked out a petal in the process. Maybe it was his own self-deprecation giving him tunnel vision on helping her up, but he somehow didn't notice the petal barely squeaking out of the corner of her clenched lips. While he rambled on the bad luck of him hurting a classmate and not being able to help her, she gave a nervous laugh and backed away ASAP.

Safely away from him in the nurse's room, she spat out the petals that she couldn't contain in her mouth without choking on for longer. Sputtering from her throat burning, she squeezed out a few tears. It seemed to die down after a few seconds, but the aftermath still gave dread. She stood there still for a while, long enough to get lost in a haze that was only broken by the shrill shriek of a dumbfounded Kazuichi who happened to walk by the open door, and knowing what the petals meant, he immediately feinted from shock and sent Mikan into a frenzy.

Unable to kick herself for leaving the door open with a patient lying on the ground, she rushed over to help him and only froze when she heard heavy footsteps pounding down the hall. "What happened to him?" the Imposter almost demanded to hear an explanation for, restraining himself as he trusted Mikan and didn't wanna risk breaking her normally collected "nurse-mode" as some dubbed it and return her to a stuttering demure mess.

"T-there's no time to worry, help me carry him inside!" she panicked, before he joined her and did their best to carry him in the room, closing the door as to not attract any more unnecessary attention. Awkwardly they helped lie him down on a bed, and Mikan hovered over him to check his vitals. Everything seemed to check out as normal, and he didn't seem to hurt himself by falling down on the floor, but he didn't have a frequency to feint despite being prone to screaming, so it wasn't something to take lightly. Was it potential trauma given his own experience? Was it just a one time thing?

As she mulled over what to do with him, the Imposter paced back and forth at a distance away, not being needed. As he considered leaving to let the professional do her work in "peace", he came to a pause when he stepped on something that made a crunching sound. Not loud enough to disturb her, but he still lifted his shoe up and glanced at it on instinct after turning his head to check on her.

'Petals, what in the-' he was confused, until he took a closer look and also noticed what seemed to be faint traces of saliva and even a small thorn encrusted with a tiny dash of pink. Most certainly blood, which only meant...

At that moment, Kazuichi finally came to, and in a daze he tried to sit himself up, but could only lift his head without feeling too dizzy to fall back down.

"T-Take it easy, you just woke up."

"Yes, it would be wise for you to not stress yourself." Imposter gingerly moved himself over. Waiting for Kaz to collect himself, he asked "Do you remember anything before you became unconscious?

"...No, not really." he took a while to respond. "Somethin' to do with um...flowers?" Mikan then bashfully looked down at the ground, unable to maintain eye contact. Finally being able to move himself up, he got a good enough look at her to spark his memory, and he glanced at the Imposter who unknowingly left a trail of crushed flower petals slightly behind him as he walked. At that moment they all acknowledged that she had Hanahaki, Kaz from seeing it firsthand, and Imposter connected the dots knowing it couldn't have been him as his removal was evident given he stopped hounding Sonia one day. It only could've been her and her posture was reflecting that.

"How long?" he quietly asked. She clenched her eyes shut, trying to hide a few tears, and murmured out a brief "T-today." Sighing, he sat down next to Kaz, leaving space between the two of them, and offered her a spot which she slowly took.

"H-hey it's not too bad, after all ya fixed me up just fine!" Kaz sported a toothy grin and have her a light squeeze on her shoulder. "Worst comes to worst you can be fixed up good as new!" the mechanic stated all too eagerly, almost like it could be easily replaced just like his broken engines. "I know it's tough but in the end it's not worth riskin' yourself over, right?"

"Normally yes, but i-it's just that u-unlike you, I can't perform surgery on myself and we have nobody else here who can so..."

"Nothing here can help? Not even the drugs from the pharmacist who graduated last year?" Imposter incredulously asked. Mikan took some of Seiko's studies for her own benefits and they formed a mutual pact, so something from her typically helped.

"N-no...from what I've looked at it's a disease that's still being recently discovered. A-as of now the only ways to remove it are surgery which I can't do here, or to have your love requited which won't happen!" she cried, and put her face in her hands to try and conceal her sobbing.

"Then just go get the surgery elsewhere, it won't be a bother to!" Kaz stated, knowing what type of argument she'd try to give to leaving for her own benefit. "Really, we'd understand ya doin' that, hell it'd even hurt more if you didn't-" he was about to ramble on, only stopped by the Imposter giving him a glare that was evidently showing he was going too far.

"Sorry, sorry!" he panicked

"N-no need to apologize...you're right but..."

"It's no cause for worrying." The Imposter interjected, knowing she was too timid to say she was scared. Scared of the procedure. Scared of the emotions which led her to loving someone. Scared of losing her emotions. Whatever it was it didn't need to be said. "If it's alright, I do have one question to ask."

"W-what is it?" she stammered, nervously looking up to her right.

"By having your love requited, what do you mean? Fully acknowledged, or is a relationship with that person necessary?"

"T-to balance out the hormone imbalance which causes it, the love needs to be reciprocated."

"I've seen cases where that's not the case." he interjected. "In fact, I've seen people get rejected but still be fine without surgery, all that's needed is to kiss the one you're in love with on the lips, and that stops it."

...what

that wasn't in her research at all what the-

"HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUH?" Kazuichi screamed. "You mean I could've cured it by getting a kiss from Miss Sonia? Aw man she's kind enough to have done tha-"

As Imposter then proceeded to scold Kazuichi for making it about him (why do you even care, you should be over her!) Mikan took in the information. She didn't stumble anything like that across her research. Sure it was a new disease, but it shouldn't have been something she missed-

A realization dawned on her. She knew about the requited love but never looked into it, partially because she knew that wouldn't help Kaz out no matter how much he tried to deny it (a thought she'll have to apologize for later), and because she was hyperfixated on the surgical procedures of removal given it was also a new disease to learn about. Panicking over that on such a short time frame caused her to gloss over information on the other way to cure it! That never happens with her, how could she let that slip?

Regardless, to her it made sense as kissing and the emotions related to it could theoretically she stopped the Imposter from lecturing Kazuichi on proper ettiquette by putting her arms around as much of him as she could to hold him in an embrace.

"Thank you so much! How'd you even know about that?" she had to ask.

"I've seen enough around before here." he answered, which made sense. Despite not being as traveled as say Korekiyo or Rantaro, he still moved around a lot and impersonated enough different people to have seen probably as much as they have in society. Maybe he was the prayer she thought about earlier after all!

"I-I can do that myself then. S-she won't hate me as long as I explain, right?" she nervously asked, still holding an awkward smile.

"If she does then she's not worth the love anyways!" Kaz added, nervously trying to earn back his grace which earned a giggle from her.

"Thank you both s-so much for this, I really needed it." which was true, if not for them then who knows how long she would've ended up hurting herself or hyperventilating over a potential, painful death. Her crush was understanding enough to respect her for this, but it still didn't hurt to have reassurance given she's still not used to the positive affection of her friends, let alone romance.

"So we can trust you to help yourself out here?"

"Y-yes, I know it doesn't look like it, b-but I can do a kiss." she smiled, losing herself in the nice thoughts of what it'd be like for the first time in a long while.

Chuckling, the Imposter agreed and after some more confirmation that Kazuichi had no serious medical concerns, both the boys moved out to do their own thing. However, right at that time Tenko came practically bursting through the door right as they left, almost blowing by them.

"Those degenerates didn't bother you did they?" she asked. She could give The Imposter a bit of a leash as he was Mikan's first true friend, but Kazuichi still gave her the creeps even if he's "no longer a stalker" no matter how many testify to her!

"They actually just helped me out with something so no."

"Well you have no reason to lie...and the Imposter wouldn't lead you on..." she begrudgingly said. Coming to terms that a male with that talent not being a manipulative hack took her longer than she'd have cared to admit.

"It's funny that you came in right now, because I really needed to see you and tell you something."

"You did? What for?"

As Mikan was about to answer, she froze up, finally realizing that she actually had to make a move on her...why the hell did she tell them that she was fine on her own!?

Panicking, Tenko rushed to her side and held her hands, telling her to breathe until she calmed down.

"If you need to wait, then I can too. Don't rush yourself." she gave an assuring smile. Calming down Mikan enough, she whimpered out something that vaguely sounded like accepting that, which was good enough.

However, Tenko then started to have a coughing fit, and remembering that she rushed down to see her, Mikan once again went into "nurse-mode" and held her, patting her back to try and help out in case anything that got stuck. Soon enough, she eventually coughed out something familiar. A rose petal to be precise. Looking at this, Mikan's eyes widened. Nervously laughing once her fit was over, Tenko sheepishly smiled.

"Eheheh, I'm not sure what's causing this but I know it's not normal to just cough up flowers, I figured you'd know what's going on!" she wheezed, smiling through the pain to not panic and lead to Mikan doing so even worse. Given Tenko's low pain tolerance it was a testament to how much she was keeping herself collected for both of their sake. Unfortunately, while Tenko did hear of Kazuichi being "cured", she had no clue on what the actual details of Hanahaki were or why it affected him given that during Kaz's episode, Usami took out Tenko's class on a field trip. To avoid the troublemakers causing too much of a ruckus it was decided that only one class were to leave at a time, which made things troublesome here.

Holding her breath in, almost debating whether or not to tell Tenko, she decided to give her the details to spare any further confusion.

"U-unrequited love!?" Tenko claimed. "B-but nobody's rejected Tenko!"

"U-unrequited can include pining, so the other person doesn't even know you have a crush on them." Taking the information in, Tenko had to resist the urge to keep her current bewildered look plastered onto her face.

"And you're saying it can be solved with a kiss too? I'd rather...not do surgery." she nervously glanced away, having flashbacks of the times Mikan was all too giddy to just stick mere needles into her. As cute and talented as she was, she still seemed a bit untrustworthy there to say the least.

"I haven't tested it out yet, but can you keep a secret?"

"Sure!"

"W-well, the Imposter and Kazuichi were just helping me out because...I have it too." she paused, looking at Tenko's shocked face and almost stopping until Tenko stammered and told her to go on. "Imposter told me that a kiss can solve it, even if you are rejected by them. I haven't looked into it medically though, but I do think it could hold s-some weight in hormone balancing. I need to look into d-dopamine and how it affects this stuff first, but it couldn't hurt to try as getting rejected still leaves surgery open as a fallback before it kills, although it would speed up the process."

Setting her nerves about Mikan handling surgery equipment aside, Tenko exclaimed "Then I'll do it! It's only natural to express your emotions to others, and there's no drawback!"

Her words encouraged Mikan as she remembered similar speeches about emotions. Would it really be alright? To show off love like that...she made it sound so easy!

"Y-you sure your crush won't mind?" Mikan asked, which then struck a nerve with Tenko as she turned into a blushing mess.

"W-well she isn't the type to, ah hahahaa" she started out before devolving into extremely nervous laughter. "Tenko's not sure, but she's a nice enough girl, she could be overwhelmed though." she said, before looking down and breaking eye contact with Mikan. "But...there's only one way to find out, right? Can't hurt to express yourself even with the fear of rejection, especially when getting rejected or being loved back fixes it."

Everything she said made sense, and this gave Mikan a fluttering feeling.

"You can do that for your crush too, right Mikan? Tenko'll help you out if you're nervous over them, whoever they are should accept you whether they love you or not, even a degenerate should be able to do that." she added, playfully glancing up at her out of the corner of her eye, but still looking somewhat hurt when mentioning the other person. Mikan just dismissed it as Tenko thinking of her potentially with a man, and had her mood brightened enough to ignore.

"Y-yes, she's kind enough to do so." she said, earning a bit of a smile from Tenko but still not enough as usual, with her still looking down and not at her eyes.

Silence then fell between the two of them, and Mikan was lost in her own thoughts.

'She's nice enough, she definitely won't hurt me, she's not like everyone else...'

Steeling her resolve to do so while she was still psyched up enough and before she could return to a mess, Mikan went in eyes closed for the kiss, and when making lip to lip contact, she opened her eyes and was surprised to see Tenko doing the same, also reaching her face out. She opened her eyes in shock too, and they broke it off.

"H-huh"

"Y-your crush is-"

"ME?" they both yelled. All of a sudden, time stopped so they could wallow in their own silliness staring them right in the face. They both had a light blush, showing off a fiercely mixed combination of embarrassment, relief, and curiosity. They stared at the other, then Tenko broke the silence with light laughter, which spread it's way to Mikan.

"You really love me?" the latter asked, still not believing it fully.

"Y-yeah, I just noticed it before coughing up the flowers but I didn't think it was related so, well-" she was cut off by another kiss, a lighter one that connected them for longer than the previous one. Breaking off again, Mikan stared in awe.

"It feels really nice, right?"

"Yep!" Tenko agreed.

Eventually, the two sorted themselves out and left the room. Mikan to go back to hers to decompress after the stress and rest up as she still needed to research this phenomena later, and Tenko to go shout to anyone nearby that she had a wonderful girlfriend. Both of them were also pleased to never cough up a single petal or flower again, and the next day The Imposter gave Mikan a knowing smile, silently congratulating her to her appreciation.

* * *

**even post-hanahaki surgery, Kaz will forever be a slave to his own Sonia desire that's just how it is, pour one out for him**


End file.
